Vanishing Cabinet
by checkerboxed
Summary: HGDM. When an aftercurfew spat between two rival House students forces them to hide together in a cabinet, can they forget their differences and work together to find their way out?


Disclaimer: I don't own any of the following characters or, really, anything other than the plot. Yay.

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**Vanishing Cabinet  
by Checkerboxed**

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**Prologue:**

_The sound of pounding footsteps in the next corridor makes them both turn. She glances down at the parchment in her hand, swearing internally when she reads the names that belong to the pounding feet. Harry Potter and Ron Weasley are coming back from their latest against-school-rules excursion, most likely to Hogsmeade. In a moment of quick thinking, she grasps the arm of the blond haired boy in front of her, pulling open the door to a cupboard nearby and shoving them both inside. Pushing him deeper in, she peeks through the crack between the doors. Harry and Ron are dashing down the hall, and Harry is pulling his Invisibility Cloak on. Just as the sound of their footsteps recede down the hall, Argus Filch shuffles into view, wheezing and cursing under his breath. His cat streaks by and tears after the two boys. _

"_What the hell are you doing?" The boy behind her hisses, reaching past her to open the door. She slaps his hand away, turning to glare at him in the meager light that spills through the crack. _

"_Do _you_ want to get caught?" she inquires, narrowing her eyes. He stares at her, his cold blue eyes glaring. _

"_No," He replies, looking furious. "I also don't want to be anywhere near as close as I am to a _mudblood_," he spits the last word out as if it burned him. "It might rub off on me."_

_The color drains from her face, and he almost laughs at how ridiculous she looks, leaning against the wall of the cupboard, her face screwed up in anger. "I may not understand why people like you use a vulgar word like mudblood in description of someone like me, but I know full well what it means." She raises her wand, pointing it between his eyes. _

_He steps back, deeper into the closet. His eyes are fixed on her wand, his hands are shaking, and the color has completely left his face. "Don't..." His cracks and she smiles in smug satisfaction at the fact that she has the power to make him look this pathetic. _

"_I won't if you don't call me a mudblood ever again..." She stares at him pointedly, and he hesitates. She steps forward, pressing the tip of her wand to his forehead. He shivers and whimpers. _

"_Alright! Alright! Just don't hurt me..."_

_She lowers her wand, keeping a firm grip on it, and turns away in disgust. "I can't believe you act so arrogant, when you'rejust completely pathetic if you don't have your cronies behind you." She peers through the crack. The hall outside is empty. _

_She feels a something cold press against the back of her neck, sharp and cruel. "I'm not pathetic," comes a whisper from behind her. She fingers her wand, raising it slowly._

"_If you can't even attack a _mudblood_ like me when I'm facing you, you_ are _pathetic," she replies._

"_Then turn and face me." He takes his wand away, stepping back to give her room to turn. He knows she won't run- she's too firm in her views against him. To his satisfaction, she turns slowly, pivoting on the balls of her feet, wand drawn. _

_They face each other, wands drawn. Suddenly, the cupboard shakes with such a jolt that she is thrown backward, almost falling out of the cupboard. They both glance wildly around, searching for a sign of the cause. The light that has been spilling between the cupboard doors vanishes, and for a moment he suspects that there is someone blocking the light. But no. The very air inside the cupboard has gone dark, and he gasps for breath, feeling his way toward the doors. _

"_What the hell have you done, mudblood?" He gasps, pushing her out of the way. As he reaches for the door, he is thrown backward, and his eyes close as he prepares for the impact of the floor. _

"_I haven't..." he hears her voice as he falls, and suddenly there is a flash of light, and she is thrown against him, and they tumble together, neither conscious of their proximity. He throws an arm out to stop his own fall, but it swings back to hit his side when his grasp hits nothing. The floor of the cupboard is gone, and they are falling, falling into empty space._

_Her scream is stifled by his school shirt, and she pushes away from him, afraid that he is the source of her unsteadiness. She realizes at the same time as he does that they won't hit the cupboard floor, and she has the presence of mind to pull out her mind and cocoon them in a softening spell, which, she hopes, will keep both of them from being broken by whatever fall they have just made. _

_And they continue to fall.

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End file.
